From the 5th to the 16th of September last year, the General Congregation of our Order took place in the Mount Carmel Centre (our house at Niagara Falls in Canada) as the most important meeting that takes place between one General Chapter and the next (See, Art.285 of our Constitutions). As you know, the main theme of our reflections was the identity of our Order in the present context of the Church.

“Qualiter respondendum sit quaerentibus” “How shall we respond to those who are seeking?”

To all the Members of the Carmelite Family: Peace and the Grace in the Lord .

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving .” (Col 2:6-7). With these words of the Apostle Saint Paul, proclaimed in the liturgy of the first day, and praying for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, Prior General Fr Fernando Millán Romeral inaugurated the 2011 General Congregation.

As Carmelites We live our life of allegiance to Jesus Christ and to serve Him faithfully with a pure heart and a clear conscience through a commitment to seek the face of the living God (the contemplative dimension of life), through prayer, through fraternity, and through service (diakonia). These three fundamental elements of the charism are not distinct and unrelated values, but closely interwoven.

All of these we live under the protection, inspiration and guidance of Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whom we honor as "our Mother and sister."